Copyright concerns of digital images in social media

• Date: 01 July 2020
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: A. Vijayalakshmi Venugopal
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12147

J World Intellect Prop. 2020;23:579–597. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jwip © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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DOI: 10.1111/jwip.12147

NOTE

Copyright concerns of digital images

in social media

A. Vijayalakshmi Venugopal

Taylor's Law School, Taylor's University,

Malaysia

Correspondence

A. Vijayalakshmi Venugopal, Taylor's University,

LakesideCampus,No.1,JalanTaylor's,47500

Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Email: avijayalakshmi.venugopal@taylors.edu.my

Abstract

There can be intellectual property rights in digital images

in the form of copyright. Images are commonly shared

online, particularly in social media. When digital images

are shared online, this can have implications on the

copyright in the images. This article highlights a number

of copyright concerns, potential solutions and re-

commendations for creators and copyright owners of

digital images, as well as those using and sharing the

images.

KEYWORDS

copyright, digital images, intellectual property, social media

1|INTRODUCTION

Creating an image typically involves a significant commitment of time, effort, creativity and skill. To share the image

with far more people than it being featured in a book, the artist may choose to share the image online. Itwould then

have the potential to reach a much broader network of users, perhaps even more than the artist may even be

aware of.

Online communication is not limited to text. Frequently, particularly in social media, images are copied and

shared. This may be good for an artist who wants his or her creation to reach more people. However, this could also

raise concerns about how the artists’copyright could be abused without the artist's permission or even knowledge.

As González (2017, p. 3) wrote, “In [a] global society, the spreading of information has no limits, especially when it

comes to online social networks where the production and dissemination of images and other materials take place

in the blink of an eye, with the risk of being misused”.

Images are a staple and popular component of social media. Sophisticated, detailed and versatile images are

used to explain, illustrate and emphasize points. The ease of copying and reposting many of these images can result

in such images being shared and reshared indiscriminately. This can make posts very engaging, but can also raise

concerns for the copyright owners and authors of these images.

2|POPULARITY OF USING DIGITAL IMAGES IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Bettinger (2014) described “social media”as “…online interaction of individuals and exchange of user‐generated

content/information…”. The examples of social media he gave include microblogging like Twitter; social networking

such as LinkedIn Facebook; social bookmarking such as Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon; social news such as Digg and

Reddit; as well as multimedia such as Flickr and YouTube. Clark (n.d.) wrote that, “Social media sites …may, but do

not necessarily, include the networking functions of social networking sites; their focus is more on distributing

content in general”.

To illustrate the popularity of some of these sites, Bettinger wrote that even as in April 2010, Facebook had

400 million users; Twitter had 106 million users; LinkedIn had 65 million users; and Myspace had 100 million

accounts. Also according to Bettinger, as in April 2010, Ashton Kutcher had the largest Twitter following with

4.7 million followers, which is a larger population than 50% of the world's countries; there were 50 million Tweets a

day (600 per seconds); and more than 8 billion minutes (equivalent to 195 lifetimes) were spent on Facebook each

day. In June 2011, Kaiser (2011) reported that Facebook had “…more than 500 million active users…” and Twitter

had “…over 175 million”. Kallas (2018) reported on the number of active users per month of the most popular social

networking sites. As of 2 August 2018, Kallas reported that Facebook had 2.23 billion active users, YouTube had

1.9 billion active users and Instagram had 1 billion active users. These figures show a dramatic change in usage.

Social media sites are overwhelming popular, not just for personal interaction, but also by businesses. Neal and

McDevitt (2010) wrote, “For many companies, the question now is not whether to use social media in its business,

but how”. Brightlabs (2011) similarly wrote, “Social networking websites not only attract individuals but have also

become a powerful tool for generating sales and building businesses”. Noordyke (2016) stated that “…social media

websites are increasingly becoming consumers’main source of information”. As such, it is not only individual users

who may attract potential legal liability from how they use their social media sites, but businesses as well, who

should be aware of their responsibilities and risk in using such sites in terms of various laws including intellectual

property. As Paltiel (2013, p. 30) wrote, “In the sphere of online activity, new and legally unknown types of conduct

are bound to present themselves”.

There is such a range of attractive and appealing images available on the internet which are easy to copy and

paste. Apart from using these images as distractions or illustrations, these images are so versatile that they are

frequently incorporated into communications, forming an integral part of the dialogue, even replacing text to

convey information. This is common in social media as these are typically intended to be casual and fun platforms.

As Freeman and Douglas (2013, p. 120) wrote, “Image sharing is a central aspect of popular social media platforms;

the unauthorised use of visual content is widespread”. However, there are some legal issues relating to the use of

such images in social media relating to copyrights in the images. Jessup (2013, p. 146) wrote, “In the digital world,

issues such as ownership and attribution of content are often lost in the fast‐paced sharing, trading and distribution

of information online”. Kariyawasam and Talagala (2017, p. 105) similarly wrote that, “It is also arguable that social

media, by allowing the pinning or sharing of posts, actually encourages infringing copyright”. It is so appealing and

easy to share images online, that it may be done with insufficient awareness of and consideration for the copyright

owners’and authors’rights in the images.

Tan (2017, p. 78) argues that “…the technological designs of social media sites…” give users “…conflicting

messages…”. Users are encouraged to “…create, modify and disseminate content freely on social media…” leading

users to validly expect that no copyright violations are involved, but copyright and takedown notices exempting the

social media sites from legal liability reflect potential copyright violations. O'Flanagan (2014, p. 116) also writes,

“Many users of the internet are under the impression that it is perfectly in conformity with social norms for one to

download and reproduce images from websites without paying the creators reproduction fees”. Users can be at risk

of unknowingly committing copyright infringements and unintentional infringement may not be a valid defence.

David Lizerbram & Associates (2016) wrote that in America, like in most countries, copyrightable work that is

created in a tangible form is protected by copyright and this extends to a digital format, including graphic work like

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